


Fever

by GlowwormiK



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Acxa meeets Lotor, Crush to friends, Gen, How the generals joined Lotor, Pre-Series, Sickfic, fluff and tenderness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 00:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12852558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlowwormiK/pseuds/GlowwormiK
Summary: Written as a giveaway-request for@rayndorkfrom@lotornetwork.The story exceeds the original request (I got way overboard with it), so if you want strictly the requested scene, go to chapter 3.This is my headcanon on how Lotor could have recruited his generals. A bunch of young half-blood women struggle to improve their lives on a forgotten planet. When a prince arrives, he is met with mixed reactions. Who will be there to look past his status and offer him compassion?Come talk to me ontumblrabout this or other fics.





	1. Chapter 1

Acxa considers herself a mature, sane, sentient being, and she is happy to be the voice of reason for her friends. When Ezor tells her that she saw the name "Prince Lotor" in the arrival plans for long-range spaceships, she just smiles sarcastically. Ezor often misuses her position as secretary in the interplanetary spaceport as an excuse to monitor where her next celebrity crush is heading, and she is not someone to pay close attention to details.  
  
"This must be a trap set for you by your supervisor to fire you. You must not tell anyone about what you saw. Think it over yourself - what would a prince of the Empire, the only heir to the throne, want to find here? We aren't even a proper planet!"  
  
Ezor doesn't listen (when did she ever?). She goes on to tell first to Narti, who doesn't seem to take any particular interest in these news, and then to Zethrid, when the latter returns from her field training. As Acxa expected, both scream and jump around when Zethrid hears the news. Both girls start buying way too much facial products and grow more and more nervous every day that makes them closer to Prince's alleged arrival.  
  
Acxa watches her friends irritably. She would never waste her time on something that senseless. Instead, she goes to talk to her manager and lists all her achievement during the last two years of work. If an imperial authority comes to visit, half-bloods like her are fired: this is a simple truth she has learned in a too bitter way. Better to keep the manager informed about how awesome she does her job.  
  
_"You are a full-time auditor now, they won't dare touch you."_   
Narti writes this on a yellow piece of paper one evening and hands it to Acxa, even though the latter clearly remembers not having told her anything about her concerns. She is so thankful to her silent scaly friend for this support, that she hugs her, much to Kova's dismay.  
  
And yet, despite all her illusions of being rational, when Acxa sees Lotor, she is done for. She had no idea a woman can develop a crush so fast. That she, of all people, can develop a crush so fast. Everything happens like in a bad dream. The day the prince is supposed to arrive, she refuses to accompany rouged Ezor, dressed up in the best of her clothes, to the space port. Instead, she goes to work, as usual. She drinks her coffee, as usual. She starts comparing numbers in latest military reports with those of the central command. Everything happens as it should until the prince appears and breaks all her everyday routines, forever.  
  
The manager brings him in. Acxa lifts her head from her papers at the sight of an unfamiliar person, her mind still in the world of numbers, and sher jaw drops. He stands there, slim and tall in his blue and black uniform, looking away and smiling absently, but to Acxa, it seems that he glows like a star that accidentally fell from the sky. His silvery hair forms a halo around his head, and when he turns, he does it with otherworldly grace.  
  
"Fill the forms out, no one is going to do that for you anymore," the manager says. "Then you can do whatever you want, just don't appear here too often."  
  
The way the old galra treats the prince amazes Acxa. What's wrong with the manager, what is he thinking? Isn't he supposed to be respectful to Zarkon's heir? Lotor doesn't seem to get angry, though. He sends the manager off with an absent nod, and the arrogant man bows and retreats.  
  
Lotor sits down at a table next to Acxa's cubicle and starts writing something in those papers that the manager gave him, his gaze focused on his work. Acxa watches him from the corners of her eyes, barely able to breathe. The prince turns out to be really young, probably even younger than she, hardly out of his teen years. When he doesn't keep appearances, he looks deeply saddened, and a worried wrinkle appears between his thin white eyebrows. After he is finished, Lotor gets up and leaves, without even noticing her presence. To Acxa, it seems that the room suddenly went a couple degrees colder.  
  
The change of manager's behaviour towards Lotor, this jump from contemptuous to subservient, keeps amazing Acxa until she hears the rumours during lunch: the prince is not just visiting, he has been exiled! The Emperor has sent his son off and told him to never come back. This, of course, changes everything. To everyone, Lotor is not a prince anymore, he is but a despicable loser, cast aside, only worthy of a trash can. Not to Acxa, though. For her, this gives otherwise so distant prince human traits.  
  
Acxa secretly despises the empire. As an auditor, every day she has to witness how unworthiest of people get promoted, receive good money and contracts just because they are galra. Every day she meets half-bloods who work twice as hard and are twice as good; only to watch her masters cast them aside. She has to work like crazy to just keep her position and her results are impeccable, and still, during every department meeting there is someone who will roll their eyes when she speaks up. She blames the administration for that. She tried to address the issue multiple times when she was younger, until she realized that her planet is a merciful one. On other worlds, people like her live in boxes and eat from trash.  
  
Before, despite his stunning beauty, Lotor was a part of the empire for her. Now, he is an individual.


	2. Chapter 2

Acxa's days have suddenly stopped being monotonous. Despite the manager's warning, Lotor does appear in the military administration a lot. Acxa starts watching the prince, feeling both ashamed and strangely excited. He seems cold, distant, but also nervous. He acts confident most of the time, sarcastic remarks jumping off him like laser shots off the force field, but sometimes, this mask slides down and Acxa sees a scared teenager, or at least she believes that she does. Lotor seems to be trying to find himself a place in the administration. He visits higher officers, trails through the corridors where regular workers sit, and Acxa watches him like a spy. Everything he tries fails - higher authorities mock or ignore him, the lower ones are afraid.  
  
The difference between Lotor and his massive, unshakeable father is stunning. Acxa even asks herself if he is really Zarkon's son.Zarkon marches instead of walking. Lotor is flexible, nimble and jumpy. The father resembles a freight train, the son is like a nervous (yet deadly) cat. But then, once, she catches Lotor angry, and the grin on his face is as if copied from a poster of his father. He really is Zarkon's offspring, after all.  
  
Zethrid and Ezor sometimes speak of Lotor. Both are severely disappointed by the prince.  
  
"Such a skinny, weakly thing! I could break him with one finger!" Zethrid laments. "I though he'd inherit one good trait from his father - his muscle! But alas, when does that ever happen..."  
  
Ezor is angered for other reason.  
  
"No courtesy! No fun!" she exclaims. "Where was he even raised, in a barn?"  
  
Narti just shakes her head and scratches Kova.  
  
Acxa has trouble not to blush when they start going over and over the topic. She shushes them down maybe a little too eagerly, until she notices Narti rubbing the tips of her fingers restlessly, while Kova is watching her with his cold yellow eyes. She has noticed something, Acxa realizes.  
  
_"Are you all right?"_ Narti writes to her, but Acxa does her best to shake it off as if nothing has happened.  
  
One more concern - she has to hide her feelings from her friends, who she normally tells everything. It is not that she doesn't trust them - she is simply too embarrassed. She knows they would never mock her, but even mentioning what she feels is a catastrophy... She does her best not to show the emotional storm she is going through, and apparently she manages to trick them, because none of them has yet addressed her state openly.  
  
She keeps watching Lotor. Slowly, she starts feeling amazed not just by his looks, but what he does as well. As an auditor, she has access to all kinds of official documents, and she filters out those that relate to the prince (and she suddenly starts to understand Ezor).  
  
It turns out that Lotor wants to make their planet to some sort of an experimental heaven. He wants to give equal rights to all races and species and get rid of money. All goods should be distributed on an equal basis, and Lotor hopes that this would motivate everyone to do their best. He has written several plans on the matter, with different degree of revolutionary content, and he seems to try and push it through the higher administration. However, he faces overwhelming resistance. Every day, Acxa finds new destructive criticism or fine mockery arrive from central command. What amazes her most is that Lotor doesn't seem to be taken aback. He simply reformulates, pushes on and searches new ways and sends new variants. To Acxa, it seems as if she may look through a window into another reality, to a world where people make decisions instead of following orders, where they produce ideas and get rewarded for them, not scolded. A half-blood, Acxa was not allowed to enter the university, and the technical college she attended never offered any courses in philosophy or sociology, so Lotor's ideas seems like a revelation to her. She dares to imagine the universe he aspires to create, but she always fails. A world of equal possibilities, a world where everyone treats each other with mercy and understanding, a world where no war is needed because there is nothing to fight about... It is too different from the grayish, obedient, rationed life she always led. Still, now Lotor's ideas captivate her mind and she feels herself brought away by this current of events.


	3. Chapter 3

A whole quintant passes by like one instant, and it is a dark, wet winter evening, when Acxa notices Lotor when she leaves her work.  
  
She follows him, lead by some unclear instinct. Watching a person at work and read general-access documents is one thing, but stalking him at the streets feels like a completely new level of pettiness. He turns into a dark valley, a refuge for homeless and drug addicts, and Acxa can not understand what he wants there. Now they are all alone, and she tries walking as quietly as possible, because if he turns, he will see her immediately. He doesn't turn, though. He doesn't seem to notice anything around him: one of his feet hits a snowy puddle, and he doesn't stop to shake the water off. Now Acxa starts noticing how unstable his pace is. With each step, Lotor is wiggling slightly from side to side, his back is slouchy instead of straight, and he is now walking much slower than usual. Something is wrong.  
  
Lotor makes several more steps, stumbles and has to grab the wall to regain stability. Now, Acxa is starting to panic. He leans on the wall as she rushes forward and calls his name. However, when she approaches, he jumps and grabs his hip where his sword should have been, if it hadn't slid back. He fails to pull it out, the sword is stuck.  
  
"Who are you?" he exclaims, but she has no time to answer. His body suddenly goes limp and he sinks to the ground. She barely manages to catch him.  
  
Lotor's head lies on her chest helplessly, and his gorgeous silver hair pours down to her elbow. What to do? Her first urge is to take him to his apartment, she knows where he lives, but then she stops. He was not feeling well for some time, and he was walking away from home. There must be a reason to why he cannot appear in his flat. Maybe there is surveillance from his father on his quarters? Maybe he has done something that the emperor won't approve of and the sickness is a sign of it? Then he needs to hide somewhere for the time being. Without much thought, Acxa puts Lotor's arm around her neck and starts walking towards her own home.  
  
Lotor is incredibly heavy for such a relatively small and thin man, so it takes Acxa more than a varga and all her strength to reach her destination. In the staircase, she does her best to walk quietly, as to not wake up the old hag in the neighbouring flat who spies on everyone and reports them to internal police. In her tiny apartment, she drops Lotor on her bed (not without a relief) and proceeds to carefully close the curtains before switching the lights on. No one may see the exiled prince until he gets to his senses. Acxa looks through a hole on the door to check if someone was following her. The staircase is semi-dark and empty as usual. Acxa exhales, feeling a little relieved.  
  
"Rift!" Lotor exclaims suddenly. Acxa jumps and turns to him.  
  
"Shh!" she hisses, "Quiet! The walls are too thin, someone might hear you!"  
  
The prince is watching in front of him with glassy absent eyes.  
  
"Gateway! I need the gateway! More paths, maybe she is there somewhere.. Realities... Just need to arrive there..."  
  
His words turn into incoherent mumbling, he is obviously being delirious.  
  
"Come here," Acxa sighs, as she undoes his several belts, pulls off his boots and coat and covers him with a blanket.  
  
The prince is very pale, his skin is now grey rather than blue, and his eyes are surrounded with black rings. What is wrong with him? Is it a virus? A poisoning? Or did he simply overexert himself? Acxa tries to call his name, but he doesn't react. Fear makes her heart contract. What if it is something serious and he needs immediate medical attention? What if he... dies? Here, in her hands? Lotor shakes and moans slightly, he has trouble breathing. After a careful examination, it starts to look like a very bad case of influenza.  
  
As her grandmother would always tell, there is no sickness that a bowl of hot soup wouldn't heal.  
  
When Acxa comes back from the kitchen, Lotor is already asleep. She puts the bowl with soup aside and pulls a chair to the bed. Lotor looks very young and vulnerable in his sleep. Acxa can't stop looking at him, he seems to emit a soft glow. Or are that tears in her eyes that make his features blur? Acxa isn't sure anymore. She tries to capture every single little feature about him, lock it in her memory, treasure it forever, when he will disappear and all that remains will be loneliness. She looks at his thin nose and long pointy chin, so different from his father's broad, strong features. His white eyebrows are moved together, his face looks pained.  
  
Acxa grows bold and carefully stretches her hand to touch his head. His hair is straight, sleek and so silky that it seems surreal. She slides her fingers along his silvery strands and feels as happy as never before. Suddenly, Lotor sighs in his slumber, turns his head and presses his cheek to her palm. Acxa freezes, half-horrified, half-overjoyed. What to do? Pulling her hand away now would surely wake him up, so she carefully gets up from her chair and sits down at his bedside. Lotor doesn't react, so she goes on caressing him. She strokes his face, slides her fingers behind his ears. It is not a sexual gesture, Acxa knows full well that her chances are non-existent. Still, being so close to him, touching him feels wonderful just on its own.  
  
"Mum?" he asks, and Acxa's heart stops for a second. Lotor doesn't open his eyes, just breathes into her palm. Seeing him so sad breaks her heart, and she follows the crazy idea.  
  
"Yes, sweetie, I'm here," she says quietly.  
  
Lotor exhales into her hand, the pained expression finally disappears from his face. Acxa watches his eyebrows relax, and the wrinkle on his forehead disappear. Now, he looks even younger.  
  
"Thank you," he whispers.  
  
Acxa touches his face gently, not sure if he feels her hand. She rubs the bridge of his nose and caresses his cheeks, she gently sweeps away the hair from his temple. Lotor's breath becomes deeper and more even, his face now very calm and absent. Acxa sits with him until he is completely asleep, then goes back into the kitchen.  
  
Her heart is heavy, lots of emotions cloud her mind. She feels bitter rage at the emperor who obviously separated Lotor from his mother. What could he have done to the woman? Killed her after she produced the child? Acxa shivers at this thought. Exiled her to have the only impact on his son? He failed miserably, Acxa think with grim joy. Then, her thoughts take a more practical turn. Why was Lotor's mother an alien? With all the rhetoric about galra superiority, why would Zarkon want his son to be a half-blood? Why would he need to go into all the trouble of reproducing with someone of a different species? Every galra woman would kill to carry Emperor's child, even if he didn't marry her. Maybe Zarkon can't have children with other galra? I need to ask Narti, after all, she is the closest one to medical questions among us, Acxa thinks. And what race was Lotor's mother, by the way? Acxa revives Lotor's thin facial features in her memory, he simply doesn't look like any alien she ever met or saw in the books. The Olkari have thin noses, but they are hairless, and Lotor definitely didn't get his mane from his father...  
  
Acxa spends the whole night with Lotor. The prince doesn't sleep quietly. He moans, wiggles in bed, spits out pieces of delirious phrases. Sometimes, he sits on the bed and starts talking to someone, gesturing wildly, then Acxa has to lull him him back into sleep. Fever doesn't leave him and no galran medicine that Acxa has in her medical box helps. He either burns and throws the blanket aside or starts shivering and begs to cover him. Acxa has to bring him water and tend to his needs, but she doesn't mind. This is probably as close to him as she will ever be in her life.  
  
The morning comes, and just as grayish light starts to pour through the curtains, Lotor finally falls asleep deeply. Acxa knows she has to go to work if she wants to keep her position, but leaving a sick man in her apartment sems too risky for her, either. She would have awoken him and warned about the necessity of being quiet, but he looks too peaceful now that night terrors have left him. Finally, she ties his wrist to the bedside with her scarf to prevent him from sleep-wandering and leaves him a note on the bedside table, along with water, food and medicine. Her heart is heavy, but she feels she has no choice.


	4. Chapter 4

At work, she can hardly concentrate, as she spends all her strength keeping appearances in front of her colleagues. Luckily, all her friends are away today, otherwise they would have surely noticed that something is wrong. The time seems to crawl like a snail; though she takes second half of day off using her overtime hours, she is nearly mad with worry by the time she can leave.  
  
She runs home as quickly as she can, her heels plunging in half-frozen puddles much like Lotor's yesterday. Last rays of winter sun are still pouring through the windows as she rushes into her apartment. Lotor is still in bed, asleep. He did take the medicine and drink the water, and also undid the knot on his wrist, Acxa notices. Also, it seems to her that he looks a little better now, but maybe it is just wishful thinking.  
  
She barely has time to make herself a tea when he appears at the kitchen entrance, panting and looking about to faint, but with a stern expression on his face.  
  
"Who are you and why did you capture me? " he asks quietly, but in his voice, Acxa hears signs of his father's unavoidable wrath. This is not the best time to associate him with Zarkon, Acxa tells herself, although sudden resemblance does hurt her.  
  
"What? No, I didn't capture you!" she exclaims, taken aback by his unfriendliness. "I saw you get sick yesterday and I figured you couldn't go home, so I took you here. If I was wrong, forgive me, I will help you to your apartment."  
  
Lotor listens to her without interrupting, and with each word, his face lightens up. By the end, he smiles and Acxa feels her knees go weak. She has never seen him smile so broadly yet. Despite his sick state, his smile is so open and happy, it transforms his face completely. All the menace is gone, the person she got to know through merciful ideas is back.  
  
"You were right," Lotor says, leaning onto the wall, as his legs obviously don't support him enough. "You did the only right thing there was to do and probably saved my life. I owe you one..." he stumbles and eyes her. "What is your name?"  
  
"Acxa, your highness."  
  
"Nice to meet you, Acxa," he smiles. "I think I saw you in the headquarters of the garnison, right?"  
  
"Yes, your highness. I am an auditor."  
  
"Call me just Lotor, please, you absolutely earned it," Lotor says, smiling again. Acxa's heart makes a happy leap. She may call him by name! Is there something more wonderful?  
  
"Yes... Lotor. How are you feeling?"  
  
"Much better, thank you. I just need a day or two more to recover. I will your flat as a hideout, if you don't mind"  
  
Acxa agrees immediately and with joy. She will have to sleep on the guest bed, but what does it mean in comparison to the bliss of having Lotor around for more time.  
  
That night, Lotor sleeps quietly, and by the time Acxa comes from work next evening, he looks almost healthy.  
  
He cooked dinner, too, and a decent one, so Acxa forgets everything for a while and only stops after she ate two plates.  
  
"Thank you," she says. "I didn't know you could cook, you are a prince, after all."  
  
"I am a man of many talents," Lotor smiles. "And in my current situation, calling me a prince would be an overestimation."  
  
"Many talents," Acxa repeats. "Cooking, fighting, making attempts to revolutionarize the society."  
  
Lotor rolls his eyes.  
  
"Revolutions? Just a little change for the best."  
  
"I find your ideas so amazing," Acxa says, feeling her cheeks burn. "Especially the one with everyone having equal access to education and civil rights. Galra aren't any better than other races, there is no reason why everyone else cannot be as good at serving the empire as them. However, I don't know about the money. If everyone gets everything just so, won't they become lazy?"  
  
Lotor laughs.  
  
"If they have a chance to change their life, why would they just sit and do nothing? I believe that every sentient being, galra or not, has an imminent wish to improve their fate. It is not just about having goods, it is about a society where that impulse is not stopped by racial discrimination or lack of funding, but instead encouraged and put to good use. You are not the only one sceptical, though. No one I ever met believes that what I aspire is possible."  
  
"I believe in you," Acxa says with deep conviction. "I believe that you can succeed. I will gladly help you of you allow me. I will do anything you say!"  
  
Lotor looks at her with a strange expression on his face.  
  
"Acxa, I am an exiled man without home, without any future in the empire. All my plans are sand castles that might never be fulfilled."  
  
"They will be fullfilled!" Acxa exclaims. "You just need to keep trying. Everyone in the high command can not be so stupid!"  
  
Suddenly, Lotor frowns.  
  
"Wait, how did you even know about my ideas and their reception in the high command in the first place? I never spoke of them openly!"  
  
Acxa freezes with her mouth open. Quiznak. What to do?  
  
"I... I might have read your reports to the central command and their replies..." she manages.  
  
She doesn't dare to look Lotor in the eyes, as she feels terribly guilty. Instead of lashing out on her, Lotor just laughs.  
  
"Spying on state secrets, aren't we?" he asks. "I thought you were an accountant, and look at you - I discovered a spy in my father's ranks! Wonder how I could use it for my own benefit..."  
  
"Stop it!" Acxa exclaims, torn apart between anger and embarrassment. "I only read files I even have access to, I wasn't spying!"  
  
"I am sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," Lotor says immediately, and this empathy, this readiness to listen to her objection hits Acxa like a punch in the stomach. This is something she never experienced, never expected from him. And it feels divine!  
  
Lotor misinterprets her silence for offense, and tries more damage control.  
  
"Listen, I am truly sorry," he starts, putting his hand on her shoulder.  
  
Acxa grabs his hand with her own, afraid that it will disappear in thin air. His fingers are long and skinny, with large joints. He will have gnarled knuckles when he gets old, Acxa thinks out of nowhere, and this thought alarms her for some reason.  
  
"I am not offended," she says quickly. "I am the one who should apologize, I was reading you files without permission."  
  
She looks up and meets Lotor's gaze, his eyes sparkling with humour.  
  
"Well, if we are both done apologizing, let us move to business. Acxa, I cannot stress enough the unique help you provided. I would be glad and honoured to have you at my side, but you need to be clear about all the risks that accompany this venture.  
  
My view of the future of the empire contradicts that of my father and his witch (Lotor's face distors at the last word). They will never allow me to rule my way, they will never listen. My exile is a way for them to get rid of the inconvenience, but for me, this is a huge risk, too. I walk on a slippery slope: anger them too much and they will finish me off without mercy. Give up once, and they will turn me into a mindless puppet. If you decide to support me, you will be walking down the same slope. There will probably be no return: fraternize with me once and no one in the empire will offer you a job for the rest of your life. I need people who I can rely upon, people who I can trust. But I will not take just someone who doesn't realize the whole scope of their actions."  
  
He looks at Acxa very attentively, and her heart starts beating very fast.  
  
"I listened to you, now you listen to me," she says.  
  
"All my life, I work like a slave and the highest position I can aspire is a manager on a crappy little planet. At the same time, I am considered lucky, because my friends don't even have that. I may not go to the university. I may not become a judge. I may not marry a galra. When I read your project, I saw an opportunity for everyone, but in the first line for myself. What do I have to lose? Meetings where I may not tell my opinion for fear of being ridiculed for my lip form? This tiny overpriced apartment, because no one wants to let a half-blood live in their property? My friend Zethrid's father is a general, he truly loves her and helps a lot, and she is a gifted and strong warrior, but she is still a soldier, whereas her more pureblood classmates already received their officer ranks. My friend Ezor has to feed her whole eight-people family with her single salary, because her mother is an alien and she can not find a job, so Ezor herself basically lives off pocket money Zethrid gets from her parents. I have been the best student in every educational institute I attended, but I am stuck with these basic tasks. My friend Narti is mute and relies on an animal for eyesight. She knows more and read further than any university professor, but she works as a cleaning lady! Tell me, prince Lotor, what do we have to lose in your father's empire?"  
  
Acxa feels unwanted tears burn her eyes, so she has to make a pause and inhale several times. Lotor looks at her, smile has faded from his eyes.  
  
"I am truly sorry for what empire did to you," he says slowly. "You are right to blame my father for it, in many aspects, he damaged your lives beyond repair. But believe me, there is a way out of it. There is a way to make it better, and I intend to find this way."  
  
"I know," Acxa nods. "That's why I suggested my services."  
  
Lotor smiles again.  
  
"Thank you, Acxa. You won't regret your decision. I swear to provide both you and your friends everything you guys want and always listen to your opinions. I will need you to travel with me - this planet is hopeless, and I have other ideas where I could try myself out."

Now, only one little detail remains - she has to convince her friends to join.  
  
"Work for this scrawny peacock?" Zethrid exclaims when she hears Acxa's story and subsequent proposal. "Leave our careers and venture somewhere with that exiled brat? You must have gone crazy!"  
  
Less than a quintant ago, you plundered a cosmetics shop to look better in front of this scrawny peacock, Acxa thinks, but doesn't say anything aloud. She needs to convince them to come, not start an argument.  
  
"He is talented, I saw it. Mercy is not an unknown word to him. He is not his father. If anything, he is the change that the Empire needs. He is the chance for all us half-bloods and for non-galra."  
  
"Or is he?" Ezor frowns. "What if he lies? I should leave my family to starve for a promise made by a stranger?"  
  
"He will find a way to help your family!" Acxa exclaims. "Without him, your family will never have a chance!" "The only thing he is talented at is making his father angry," Zethrid giggles.  
  
"If he was a good heir to his father, he wouldn't have gotten himself exiled in the first place!" Acxa starts getting angry.  
  
_"I trust Acxa's impression,"_ Narti scribbles in her notebook and passes it to other girls.  
  
_"I saw him once on the street, I can confirm what Acxa says. He does genuinely want something good."_  
  
As usual, her judgement is the last drop. Ezor and Zethrid trust her silent wisdom. Everyone looks at each other, then Ezor shrugs.  
  
"Fine," she says, "if Acxa and Narti go, then I'll go, too. Zarkon exiled him, he must have pissed his father off greatly."  
  
She giggles, and Zethrid starts laughing with her. Acxa exhales, relieved, and smiles, too. She smiles until Narti hands her another paper.  
  
_"He will never love you the way you want him to, you do realize that?"_  
  
To her amazement, Acxa thinks: I have more important work to do, it doesn't matter.


End file.
